Mullardoch’s Creag Dubh
It hadn’t been the most promising of starts. One of the wheels on my old camper van had chosen an awkward moment to sieze up so plans for a weekend away had to be put on hold. Instead we left home later than we normally would have and arrived in Glen Cannich looking for a short-day option.
The Corbett of Sgorr na Diollaid, straddling the watershed between Glen Cannich and Glen Strathfarrar, looked like a good bet since my wife hadn’t climbed it but a stalking party appeared to be heading in the same direction. I had a chat with the stalker and he confirmed they’d be shooting on the flanks of the hill above Muchrachd. He seemed genuinely sorry but I was happy to back off and go elsewhere – it’s not as if Glen Cannich is short of good walks!
At the head of the glen Loch Mullardoch stretches out west with some fine Munros rising from its north shore. Carn nan Gobhar, 3255 ft, Sgurr na Lapaich, 3773 ft, An Riabhachan, 3704 ft, and An Socach, 3507 ft form a ten mile corrie-bitten and wind-scoured ridge, a remote group of hills that requires a long walk-in along the northern shore of the loch. The ascent of Carn nan Gobhar, high above the source of the Allt Mullardoch, makes a fine circular route of about 8-9 miles from the Mullardoch dam.
I walked this route in the spring of last year when the sun shone on the lower slopes and snow fell on the tops and I recalled views of Glen Strathfarrar in the north and beyond to the big hills of the Monar Forest – Maoile Lunndaidh, Sgurr a’ Chaorachain and Lurg Mhor. I also remembered the close-up views of Sgurr na Lapaich, the most majestic of all the Mullardoch Munros, Robbed of our desired destination for the day we set off for a repeat ascent of Carn nan Gobhar instead.
As we parked the car below the Mullardoch dam and poked our heads outside it became apparent we might not yet get things our own way. It was blowing a gale and the waters of Loch Mullardoch were being whipped up into fiendish squalls. As we left the lochside and followed the course of the in-spate Allt Mullardoch we were mercifully sheltered from the wind but I knew that once we reached the ridge that runs west to Carn nan Gobhar that wind would hit us head-on. A boggy footpath runs up the length of the Allt Mullardoch into Coire an t-Sith, the fairy corrie, so we made the most of it, enjoying the tumultuous swirl and roar of peat-brown waters of the burn before climbing the steeper slopes of Carn nan Gobhar’s eastern top, Creag Dubh.
It had been a pleasant enough climb, despite the boggy underfoot conditions and the showers of monsoon-type rain that broke up the sunny spells. Clad from head to foot in Gore-Tex we were well protected from most of the elements, but even the best of waterproofs wouldn’t stop us being battered and rocked by the wind. On the high ridge that connects Carn nan Gobhar with its outlier, Creag Dubh, 946 metres, the wind was so ferocious it forced us into another unplanned route change. Instead of fighting into the gales we’d go in the opposite direction and allow the wind to blow us along – to the stony summit of Creag Dubh, down easy slopes to a high bealach, then over a couple of un-named subsidiary tops before descending Coire Eoghainn back to the Mullardoch dam and our car.
It was a good plan. The wind didn’t bother us too much now that it was blowing at our backs and we wandered over some un-named tops that were rarely visited, if at all, by the baggers. Once we left the main Carn nan Gobhar ridge there was no sign of man-made paths or tracks, only us and the wind and the occasional roaring of the red deer stags. Below Creag Dubh we took some shelter behind a rather curious 60-metre long dry stone wall and tried hard to figure out what it’s purpose was. Could it be the remnant of some older dividing wall, separating parishes or communities, or could it have been created by trainee drystane-dykers on some high-level training course?
We had no idea, but were grateful enough for the shelter it gave us to enjoy our coffee and piece. Two more cairned summits took us east towards our earlier destination Sgorr na Diollaid and I couldn’t help wonder how the shooters had fared? Like us, they had probably been battered by the wind and rain too. The elements might even have spared the life of some red deer stag.
Easy slopes took us down the russet coloured Coire Eoghainn then, just as I thought we were almost there, steep slopes of old heather and invisible streams offers a purgatorial final half hour. It was a bedraggled pair who reached the road and the short walk back to the car but by this time, with the exercise-induced endorphins flowing, we declared it a memorable walk, if only for the uncertainty of it all.
Map: OS Sheet 25
Distance: About 8 miles
Start/Finish: Mullardoch Dam
Approx Time: 5-6 hours
Route: From the dam at the end of Loch Mullardoch follow the road on the N side for a short distance to a boat hut. Just beyond the hut the road terminates and a rough footpath continues along the N shore of the loch. Follow this path to the bridge over the Allt Mullardoch. Follow the E bank of the stream into Coire an t-Sith. At the end of the path continue N up steeper slopes to the summit of Creag Dubh. Descend SE to a high bealach with a curious wall then continue ESE to a large cairn at spot height 861. Foloow the broad ridge E for a short distance before descending the slopes of Coire Eoghainn back to the start